The diversity of H3 loops determines the antigen‐binding tendencies of antibody CDR loops

Of the complementarity‐determining regions (CDRs) of antibodies, H3 loops, with varying amino acid sequences and loop lengths, adopt particularly diverse loop conformations. The diversity of H3 conformations produces an array of antigen recognition patterns involving all the CDRs, in which the residue positions actually in contact with the antigen vary considerably. Therefore, for a deeper understanding of antigen recognition, it is necessary to relate the sequence and structural properties of each residue position in each CDR loop to its ability to bind antigens. In this study, we proposed a new method for characterizing the structural features of the CDR loops and obtained the antigen‐binding ability of each residue position in each CDR loop. This analysis led to a simple set of rules for identifying probable antigen‐binding residues. We also found that the diversity of H3 loop lengths and conformations affects the antigen‐binding tendencies of all the CDR loops.     

农业非点源污染研究现状与发展趋势

水危机已成为世界上最引人关注的问题之一。无论是发达国家,还是发展中国家,都已经或即将面临着这一危机。而在干旱与半干旱地区尤为紧迫。引起水危机的主要原因有二：一是从长远来讲,水资源是有限的,而目前由于世界人口持续增加引起对水资源需求的膨胀使得这一危机加...     

Body length variation within multi-species fish shoals: the effects of shoal size and number of species

Theory predicts that selection should favour phenotypic homogeneity in fish shoals, and field studies have indeed confirmed that variation in body length within fish shoals is significantly lower than expected from a random distribution of fish among shoals. We investigated the extent to which variation in fish body length within shoals is determined by the shoal mean of body length, the number of species in a shoal, and the overall shoal size. We collected 34 fish shoals, ranging in size from 6 to 776 individuals, from the littoral zone of a Canadian lake. Shoals consisted of up to four different species, with multi-species shoals being larger and more frequent than single-species ones. The strongest determinant of body length variation within shoals was the shoal mean of body length, followed by the number of fish species in a shoal; i.e. multi-species shoals were less size-assorted than single-species ones. A more detailed analysis showed that the higher body length variation observed in multi-species shoals was due to increased body length variation both within and between component species. Shoal size had no significant effect on body length variation within shoals. Potential explanations of the positive relationship between body length variation and the number of species in a shoal are suggested. The implications of the above results for the evolution of multi-species shoals are discussed. Received: 6 May 1997 / Accepted: 14 October 1997     

A warmer environment can reduce sociability in an ectotherm

The costs and benefits of being social vary with environmental conditions, so individuals must weigh the balance between these trade-offs in response to changes in the environment. Temperature is a salient environmental factor that may play a key role in altering the costs and benefits of sociality through its effects on food availability, predator abundance, and other ecological parameters. In ectotherms, changes in temperature also have direct effects on physiological traits linked to social behaviour, such as metabolic rate and locomotor performance. In light of climate change, it is therefore important to understand the potential effects of temperature on sociality. Here, we took the advantage of a ‘natural experiment’ of threespine sticklebacks from contrasting thermal environments in Iceland: geothermally warmed water bodies (warm habitats) and adjacent ambient-temperature water bodies (cold habitats) that were either linked (sympatric) or physically distinct (allopatric). We first measured the sociability of wild-caught adult fish from warm and cold habitats after acclimation to a low and a high temperature. At both acclimation temperatures, fish from the allopatric warm habitat were less social than those from the allopatric cold habitat, whereas fish from sympatric warm and cold habitats showed no differences in sociability. To determine whether differences in sociability between thermal habitats in the allopatric population were heritable, we used a common garden breeding design where individuals from the warm and the cold habitat were reared at a low or high temperature for two generations. We found that sociability was indeed heritable but also influenced by rearing temperature, suggesting that thermal conditions during early life can play an important role in influencing social behaviour in adulthood. By providing the first evidence for a causal effect of rearing temperature on social behaviour, our study provides novel insights into how a warming world may influence sociality in animal populations.     

Consistency of fish‐shoal social network structure under laboratory conditions

We investigated the consistency of association network structure for groups of sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus. Each group was observed twice and we varied the duration between observations and the size of the experimental arena that they were observed in. At the dyad level, we found positive correlations between dyad interaction frequencies across observations. At the group level we found variation in four network metrics between observations, but only in treatments where the duration between observations was short. Specifically, fish formed more and smaller groups in the second observation in this treatment. Fish were also organized into more subunits in the larger arenas. Finally, we saw positive correlations between some group network metrics across observations suggesting relative consistency at the group level. There are several processes that might drive these interaction patterns. Our findings have implications for experimental design and the comparison and integration of findings of experiments from different studies carried out under different conditions.     

Juvenile convict cichlids shoaling decisions in relation to shoal size and age

Many animals form groups and socialize in response to evolutionary pressures such as predation, food availability, and mate acquisition. Evidence of social choice based on various phenotypic characters (Group Phenotypic Composition [GPC]) has been observed in several animal species. In addition to the physical characteristics of the social group, it is also interesting to consider how decisions of who to socialize with might be expected to change for an individual over time. Younger individuals with limited life experience may discriminate differently between social groups than older conspecifics who have had the opportunity to learn and who may be faced with different ecological or environmental pressures. Here, we used a traditional two‐choice design to explore the shoaling behavior of juvenile convict cichlids and determine whether the number of fish and/or the size/life stage of the individuals within a shoal influenced social choices. We found that juvenile convict cichlids spent more time shoaling with similarly sized juvenile individuals and also preferred to shoal with larger shoals, but not when shoals were comprised of adult fish. The size of the individuals in a shoal was a more influential factor than the size of the shoal itself. Size of individual juveniles was correlated with tendency to visit shoals, but was not correlated with overall time spent shoaling, regardless of shoal composition. As juveniles, convict cichlids can make discriminatory choices that are influenced by specific aspects of shoal composition.     

氨基酸在蛋白质空间结构中的深度倾向性因子

用统计和几何方法给出了氨基酸在蛋白质空间结构中的深度计算,并利用PDB数据库得到了不同氨基酸在蛋白质中的深度倾向性因子,并得到了这些倾向性因子与氨基酸的物理、化学综合特性的相关性质.     

海南岛尖峰岭热带山地雨林区26年的热量因子变化特征

尖峰岭热带山地雨林作为中国典型的热带森林生态系统,其长期的气候动态状况对研究全球变化具有重要的意义。本文采用海南尖峰岭森林生态系统国家野外科学观测研究站天池气象站1980—2005年的地面常规气象观测资料,分析了尖峰岭热带山地雨林区热因子的变化趋势。结果表明：26年来,林区热因子（平均气温、平均地温、平均最高/最低气温、平均最高/最低地温、极端最高/最低气温、极端最高/最低地温、地气温差、年积温）均呈上升趋势,其中平均气温、平均地温、地气温差、平均最低气温和极端最高/最低地温升高趋势明显,每10年分别增加0.32 ℃、0.59 ℃、0.27 ℃、0.39 ℃、2.03 ℃、1.62 ℃,最低温度的升高趋势都大于最高温度的增长速率,说明尖峰岭热带山地雨林区气候变暖来自于最低温度升高的贡献。     

稻水象甲种群增长规律初探

扣笼接虫观测稻水象甲不同接虫密度所产下代虫量。结果表明,稻水象甲种群增长具有明显密度依赖性,接虫密度X越大,代间增殖倍率Y2越低。X-Y2关系用Y2=1/(0.836 0.421X)的双曲线拟合良好。以水稻移栽后稻田成虫密度N为指标,越冬成虫存活率为S0,防治后成虫残存率为S1,则第t 1年种群密度关系可表述为：Nt 1=S0S1Nt/(0.0836 0.0421S0S1Nt)。模型参数值稳定,拟合度好,模型描述的种群增长规律与稻水象甲侵入辽宁省以来种群增长的实际情况相吻合。用该模型预测辽宁省不同地区稻水象甲的发生趋势其准确率高,并可指导稻水象甲的综合防治。     

基于空间相邻的地类转换倾向性模型的构建及应用

将景观生态学中的景观空间相邻矩阵引入土地利用变化研究,并与地类转移矩阵相结合,建立起地类转换倾向性模型.以济南市2000～2005年土地利用变化为应用案例,探讨土地利用类型空间格局对地类转换的影响.研究表明,地类转换倾向性模型的构建能够有效的反映土地利用类型在空间相邻的情况下地类间的转移倾向,有助于进一步探索区域土地利用空间格局对地类转换机制的影响,挖掘土地利用变化信息,寻求土地利用变化驱动力.最后对该模型的应用范围进行了界定.